The 8 Best Gaming Laptops of 2021

The Asus TUF A15 is as good as it gets when it comes to gaming laptops that balance fantastic performance at an affordable price. A sibling to the top-of-the-line ASUS Zephyrus line (more on that below), this laptop’s fast and robust components are suitable for casual gamers and competitive players alike. A gorgeous and vivid picture via its large 15.6-inch screen, the ideal size for most gamers, rounds out this complete package. The TUF A15 is also available in options with more power (and higher price tags) if you want even better performance.

• On a plane or long road trip and need to get your Call of Duty: Warzone fix? No problem with the TUF A15’s long-lasting battery, which offers more than five hours of gaming and 11 hours of video-watching.
• Connect gaming headsets, mice, keyboards, speakers and even a LAN cable for fast, stable online gaming with the laptop’s USB, Ethernet and HDMI ports, plus its Bluetooth connectivity.
• The TUF A15’s strong chassis (i.e. outer shell) is built for durability, giving you the confidence to throw it in a backpack and take it on the go.

The MSI GP75 Leopard is a powerhouse laptop that will easily handle any game you can throw at it—but all this muscle does come at a higher price. The star of the show is its large 17.3-inch display, the biggest of any laptop on our list. With the extra screen real estate, you’ll be able to see your opponents easier in shooter and sports games, plus racers like Dirt 5 will display more of the track for better driving. The large screen is also ideal for binge-watching movies or your favourite TV series, both of which will look stunning and more immersive.

• Perfect for students who use their computers for movies and TV, the GP75 Leopard’s two-speaker setup with dual-subwoofers delivers big, realistic sound.
• A fully customizable backlit keyboard is colour coded to enhance your gameplay or even provide a light show synchronized to your favourite tunes.
• With storage space of 512 GB, it’s half the capacity of the less-expensive Acer Nitro 5 (which has a 1 TB hard drive), but it still provides enough room to install dozens of games or thousands of photos or work documents.

Game anywhere by choosing the portable Asus ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop that’s light enough to bring to coffee shops, your friend’s house, school and more. At just under two centimetres thick and weighing two kilograms (the second-lightest laptop on our list), it’ll easily slide between books and binders in your backpack. It also has a near-edgeless 15.6-inch screen, which looks sleek and helps immerse you in your games.

• The ROG Zephyrus G15 doesn’t mess around with its fast Ryzen 7 processor capable of running the latest titles, as well as easily handling everyday work or school projects.
• While it doesn’t have dual-subwoofers like the MSI GP75 Leopard, the twin front-firing speakers of the Zephyrus supplies crystal-clear sound, while high-resolution drivers deliver immersive, detailed audio to your gaming headset.
• The 512 GB solid-state drive provides enough storage space for about 20 games (averaging about 50 GB per game), but moreover, its ultra-fast speed will load them in seconds.

If you or your kids are into fast-action games like Valorant, Fortnite or Apex Legends, the ROG Strix G15 is the gaming laptop for you. With its 16 GB of RAM (double the 8 GB of the Asus TUF A15), gameplay will be ultra-smooth with minimal motion blur, stuttering or lag to interrupt it. Combine that with its impressive Intel i7 Core CPU and GeForce RTX 2070 GPU and you have one of the most powerful laptops on our list.

• The Strix’s 15.6-inch HD display runs at 144 Hz, a technical term meaning it can display images at an ultra-fast framerate (and it’s more than twice as speedy as the Asus TUF A15!).
• It’s the only gaming laptop on our list featuring advanced liquid-metal cooling for optimum performance.
• The laptop comes with Windows 10 Home pre-installed making it a great choice as an everyday laptop for school, work or streaming video.

If your kids are heading to school on a tight budget, you still can find functional and affordable laptops to let them get their game on. This Acer gaming laptop features all the horsepower they’ll need for popular games like Among Us, Rocket League or Fall Guys (if they want to play more-intensive games like Call of Duty, consider the higher-spec ASUS ROG Zephyrus). The Nitro 5 is also futureproofed with expandable memory and storage so they can upgrade it through their college years and beyond. (You can pair it with a comfy gaming chair, which will help their posture during long study sessions, too.)

• Whether they’re printing off their favourite photos, or fragging with friends on a gaming headset, the Acer Nitro 5 has three USB and other connection ports for the job.
• Sure, games will look sweet but your kids can also tuck in for a night of binge-watching The Mandalorian on this laptop’s bright and crisp 15.6-inch screen.
• Solidly built and rugged, the Acer Nitro 5’s 1.1-inch thick and hefty-but-portable six-pound chassis can withstand the occasional knock or bump.

Imagine being immersed in an excellent game of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but at the same time managing your Spotify playlist or monitoring Twitch streams all on a dedicated second screen above the laptop’s keyboard. That’s the HP Omen 15, an innovative gaming laptop capable of handling the most robust games and software, while offering dual-screens for multitaskers.

• Like the Asus ROG Zephyrus, the HP Omen 15’s luminous 15.6-inch HD display is nearly edge-to-edge, great for zoning in on the games, movies and TV shows you and the family will watch.
• Its Intel UHD graphics processor will have your kids shooting three-pointers in NBA 2K21 with smooth, crisp and jitter-free gameplay.
• As the only dual-screen gaming laptop on our list, the HP Omen 15 is best suited for those who like doing double duty at work, school or while gaming.

If you’ve ever played Beat Saber, the super-fun virtual reality game that crosses Guitar Hero with Star Wars lightsabers, you know how VR gaming pulls you into an immersive experience that’s on another level. Gaming laptops that have the raw power to handle VR gaming can be north of $2,500, but this Asus TUF has enough muscle for hundreds less.

• For a VR laptop, the Asus TUF is surprisingly lightweight and portable, weighing just five pounds and measuring under an inch thick. It’s ready to take to your friend’s house to show off your VR prowess in Half-Life: Alyx.
• Got some time to kill between Zoom calls? The TUF’s battery delivers over five hours of game time, more than enough juice to beat a few levels of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series.
• When you’re ready to return to the real world, the Asus TUF is also a great all-around laptop with Windows 10 and a 15.6-inch screen for all your schoolwork, video-editing or movie-streaming.

Don’t let the fact that it’s not labelled a “gaming laptop” fool you. The HP Pavilion 15 is perfect for families wanting a powerful laptop that everyone can use for work and school, but is also capable of handling hours of Fortnite and other less intensive games. Sleek, silvery and slim, it’ll easily tag along wherever you and your kids go and look good doing it.

• It’s the only laptop on our list featuring a 15-inch touchscreen display for swiping and tapping through game menus or those school and work projects.
• Sometimes your kids forget their headphones, but they won’t need them with this laptop’s dual speakers with audio boost to make their music and movies sing.
• Unique to the Pavilion 15 is its quick-charge feature that powers the battery up to 50 per cent in just 45 minutes so you can work in the park on a sunny day (while your older kids play!) or take it on your next family road trip.